RISMEDIA, June 19, 2008-Fillmore Real Estate, one of New York City’s largest privately owned and operated residential real estate firms, announced a 7.5% increase in sales for May 2008 over May 2007, the third consecutive month of substantial growth for the firm. March sales figures were up over 24%, and April 12% over last year’s numbers. Overall sales for the past three months are up 14.6%.

“We’re going against the grain,” says John Reinhardt, president and chief executive officer of Fillmore. “Unlike many other brokerage firms, we are enjoying one of our strongest periods in a market that is much softer than in previous years.”

One of the reasons for Fillmore’s strength has been its diversification. Last year the Brooklyn-based firm purchased over 1,400 listings held by the now-bankrupt Foxtons, a discount brokerage firm. “The purchase was the equivalent of meeting our two-year growth goals in two days,” notes Reinhardt. “But the opportunity was too great to pass up, and we’re already reaping quite substantial benefits.”

According to the company, Fillmore hired dozens of the Foxtons top-producing agents and opened satellite offices throughout the five boroughs as well as Long Island and Westchester. “By expanding our footprint we’ve become a regional powerhouse,” Reinhardt noted.

The company has also diversified by getting into development projects. Its Mill Harbor and MeadowWood projects in Bergen Beach and East New York, respectively, have been extremely successful, attracting buyers from across the city and generating media attention from The New York Daily News to Crain’s New York Business to Brownstoner.com. Fillmore Development is aligned with top developers including Taconic and Parkmore.

In the Taconic partnership, 23 Fillmore agents acted as the exclusive sales brokers for the 1,152-unit complex at MeadowWood, the largest condominium development in Brooklyn. The company also had a huge success selling out Seaview Estates, an affordable development in Canarsie, where apartments which sold for $196,000 in 2003 are now going for $360,000.

“Our goal is to be aligned with top builders, and attract the leading local talent to come on board,” adds Reinhardt, “and to that end, we’re aggressively recruiting and training agents to understand the nuances between selling units in developments and residential sales.”

Another reason for Fillmore’s success, says the company, is its investment in technology to enhance a home buyer’s experience with the firm. The newly-upgraded website, www.fillmore.com, receives two million hits every month, and has many innovative features. The Prospect Management System is a Web-based tool which allows agents to maintain close communications with their clients, while the AgentDashboard extranet, an integrated online system, gives Fillmore agents unparalleled access to prospects, properties, company news, marketing materials, and much more.

At the Fillmore site, home buyers can save properties, check out recently-viewed listings, set up automatic notification for new listings and search for open houses. Through tracking the click-streams of customers and examining profiles completed on MyFillmore, the company is continuously learning about the buying patterns and habits of its customers.

In the future Reinhardt plans to enhance the Fillmore website to offer clients listings based on preferences, in the same fashion that Amazon.com offers new books to its customers. “The ability to leverage technology is exciting for us because it gives Fillmore a chance to improve our services at a localized level, while at the same time we’re broadening our regional footprints through acquisition and organic growth,” concludes Reinhardt.

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